Searching Far and Wide - 92

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Kadabra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

- Cinder, Vulpix

Saffron City VIII

“So, today’s the day?” Daisy asked him and he nodded. “Nervous?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” he said, his shoulders sagging and air leaving his lungs in a weary sigh. “I hate myself. Why do I get like this?” he whined.

“Dramatic,” the Sensational Sister replied with an amused smile.

“I know, I know,” he grumbled, running his fingers through his hair. “Can’t help it, ok? Doesn’t matter. I just get nervous, is all,” he muttered, leaning on the desk as if that would help him feel better.

“Didn’t say it was a bad thing,” Daisy commented with a giggle. “I actually think it’s kind of cute.”

“You have terrible taste though,” Pierce commented flatly, getting a snort from Andromeda beside him. He turned to give the vaporeon an annoyed look but she just batted her eyes innocently at him. “As if I’d believe that look.” To her credit, the Water type stuck to her act, but still…

“Rude,” Daisy told him, unimpressed, getting his attention back to the conversation. “But not inaccurate-”

“Ouch.”

“-so I’ll let it pass. I’m sure you’ll be fine. You prepare really well from what you showed me about our Gym and Brock’s. On top of that, you have a very solid team. You’ll be fine,” Daisy said, drawing a very smug look from Andromeda, who patted him with her tail fin to make sure he saw it. He could almost hear the vaporeon saying “she knows her stuff, listen to her”.

He just rolled his eyes at the pokemon and decided to focus on the woman on the screen.

“I know it’s stupid. It’s just how it goes with me, I guess,” he mumbled, leaning back on his chair. “We are ready. If we lose, it’s just because I suck-” he commented, ignoring the slap of Andromeda’s tail and continuing. “-and we’ll need to train harder to make up for it. Can’t lose if my pokemon are literally too strong to lose,” he commented with a half-smile. It sucked, but it was what it was.

“Andromeda, if you would?” Daisy said, her expression flat. A second later, his vaporeon moved to slap him right in the face this time. “Thank you,” the Sensational Sister said, getting a yip from the eeveelution.

“I’ll remember this next time I have to buy fries,” Pierce commented and now Andromeda regretted her actions. “Oh no, if it’s the consequences of your own actions,” he said dryly, side-eyeing her. “And you,” he continued, turning towards Daisy. “Stop corrupting my pokemon.”

“You needed that slap,” the blonde said, huffing. “How’d I think getting involved with you was a good idea?”

“Told you. Terrible taste,” he commented. Andromeda didn’t react this time, but he could see, from the corner of his eyes, that she sorely wanted to. She was smarter than that, it seemed, if not much. “Speaking of, I think I’ll go for a visit over there tomorrow or the day after.”

“Then we can celebrate a little,” Daisy said with so much certainty that he- “Or I can comfort you, either or.” Nevermind. “I’ll look forward to it,” she added with a beaming smile that told him she meant it. Seeing her so enthusiastic, he couldn’t help but return the smile in kind, his nervousness pushed aside for a moment.

“I look forward to it too.”

“Although, are you going to try having Cygnus get you here?” Daisy asked curiously but Pierce noticed something that made him grin and shake his head.

“Nah. He’s not that strong. It was only the close evolution that helped push him a little further. We’ll have to do more training before trying to teleport between cities… Which sucks, because it means that by the time he can, we’ll be too far from Cerulean,” Pierce explained, lamenting that last fact more than a little. It’d have been nice to be able to move around without having to make reservations and pay for the teleports, but it wasn’t a great loss. Just a little annoying. On a different note though- “You already knew that though.”

“So I did,” Daisy replied, unashamed at the fact that he caught her. “Just had to make sure you knew that.”

“I want it on the record that I feel insulted.”

“So you do,” she replied with the same casual tone as before and a nod. “Who knows though, maybe things will calm down a little and I’ll be able to go over there, eh?”

“That’d be nice,” Pierce commented, placing his hands behind his head as he leaned back. “Is that likely though?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at Daisy.

“Eh… I give it a 50-50, honestly,” she answered with a helpless smile and a shrug. “Back to what we were talking about though,” she continued, shaking her head and turning that smile into one much more happy. “Do you have anything in mind for Sabrina’s Psychic abilities? Because I’m sure you know she uses those,” she added, eyes wide with curiosity. “Not that it’s wrong if you don’t have anything. Few people have ideas on what to do and almost none work. My sisters and I have only one method and it’s… questionable,” she admitted, to which he hummed.

“I do have an idea, and I think it’ll work,” he said, somewhat certain for once. That was something he’d considered even before they reached Saffron and… Well, he’d only come up with two things that could work, only one of which sounded usable at all. “We’ve been practicing it and I think it should work. Depends on how well I can keep it up, but I think I can block her.”

“You can block her?...” Daisy mumbled, blinking as if what he said made no sense whatsoever. “This, I have to hear.”

“Well, it’s fairly simple, really,” Pierce said with a grin.

[}-o-{]

“We are ready,” he said, taking a deep breath in and then letting it out. Even then, it was mostly spoken for himself. Narcissa, clinging to his back, was more than ready and there was no need for useless talk, he was sure. Alas, Pierce didn’t have nearly as easy a time.

The beedrill clicked her mandibles and he chuckled.

“Ok, let’s go,” he replied simply.

Delaying was useless. It was their turn and they better get on with it. So, determined, he started walking, coming out from the waiting zone and onto the battlefield of the Saffron Gym. As he did so though, he focused his mind as best he could, even more than it already was. He needed to get things right, because one slip up and things would go downhill, most definitely.

This was an edge he was trying to get, and he’d rather succeed.

“Pierce Lawson,” Sabrina greeted, her expression flat and her voice even more so. He couldn’t help but question the method he’d come up with to keep her out of his mind, looking at her like that. However, he didn’t truly know if it wasn’t working, so he’d keep it up. “I’ve heard much about you,” the woman told him and he blinked. “The League has its gaze on you and so do many others. Someone to watch, that’s you.”

“I’m not that special,” he replied, waving that off with a smile. So, maybe he was a little special, but to have the League eyes on him? At least the way Sabrina put it, it made him feel like it was a bit much.

“I wonder about that,” Sabrina said, tilting her head which was as expressive as he’d seen her through his observation. That’s why he found his eyebrows rising. “And it’s not often that I wonder about the honesty of someone that’s in front of me.”

‘So it works,’ he thought triumphantly. Immediately after, he almost grimaced as he focused again.

What was his method? As he’d told Daisy, it was simple. There was only one way he knew of to stop people from reading his mind and that was the blockage on his memories of his original world. So, he’d decided to try and weaponize it, sort of, against Psychic mind reading. Essentially, he’d just keep thinking about his old world throughout the Gym battle.

It was easier said than done, but he’d trained himself with Cygnus’ help and they’d been fairly successful after the first two days.

“Indeed,” the leader commented, almost definitely replying to his thought, Pierce was sure. Interestingly though, he thought he could hear a tinge of amusement in her voice, but it might as well have been his imagination. Her expression remained unchanged, after all, which added to his doubts. “Now, I believe we are here for a challenge. If it’s all the same to you…” she said leadingly.

“Sure,” Pierce agreed with a nod. The sooner he could let his guard down, the better. Because it was exhausting to always think about the same thing while also going about doing everything else. With that, Sabrina nodded to the referee.

“Gym Leader Sabrina will release her first pokemon!” was the call and Sabrina did just that, with the pokeball floating above her hand and opening on its own. It was kind of impressive. Pierce couldn’t help but lament that he’d never be able to do that himself, but alas…

‘Slowpoke, huh?’ Pierce thought. ‘Not only that, but a Galarian slowpoke at that. That’s pure Psychic, pretty sure.’ That meant everyone was fair game, he supposed. Except maybe Bellatrix, since slowpoke could have Own Tempo as an ability, which would prevent it from being intimidated or anything of the sort. Not a huge loss, but something to keep in mind.

So, Pierce decided to go with…

“Narcissa,” he said instead of pulling out her pokeball. After all, the beedrill had never let go of his shoulders or been put back in the ball. Pierce didn’t see much issue with that, considering his team was known to everyone that cared to check. Furthermore, he might not think he was a big deal, but Daisy had told him that he was a trainer Leaders would look for, similarly to how they watched out for Oak’s sponsored ones and so on.

He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, thinking it was just something they did with anyone that showed some promise, but maybe she’d been hinting at the League attention he was supposedly getting?

Either way, his beedrill let go of him and buzzed around him towards the battlefield.

“Everyone ready?” the referee asked them, to which both replied in the affirmative. “Then start!”

“Move,” Pierce ordered immediately, grinning wryly at the absolute silence on the other side of the battlefield. It wasn’t unexpected, but it was certainly a little unnerving. He’d encountered many people that fought silently with Psychics by their side in Saffron, but Sabrina made him nervous like no other, expectedly. “Blast,” he added.

Thus, in between dashes in the air, Narcissa started shooting Pin Missiles. The move was new, something she’d barely got the hang of the previous day, however. This meant that the power behind the attacks wasn’t all that strong, but it was better than anything else they had against Slowpoke that didn’t involve going melee. Pierce wanted to avoid close combat for a bit while he tried to gauge the situation. Still, Narcissa had orders to go for it if she really wanted to and saw a chance.

His beedrill preferred that, after all, and that was important, because it meant that she’d be more comfortable there, even if it was disadvantageous. The last thing he wanted to do was frustrate his own pokemon. That was bound to cause trouble for them and he had to avoid that.

Pierce prepared himself when he saw Slowpoke’s eyes shine. However, they weren’t the color he expected from a Psychic move. Instead, it was white and he had no idea what that was… That is, until the effect became obvious. How? In the shape of Narcissa not shooting Pin Missiles anymore. ‘Disable? Well, that sucks, but I can work with that.’

“Fine then, Strike,” he said and he didn’t need to be a Psychic to know that Narcissa would have cackled if she could. Not a second later, his beedrill was already going for it, dashing like her life depended on it.

Pierce was aware that it was probably what Sabrina wanted. Zen Headbutt was a possibility, even if he didn’t know if Galarian slowpoke could learn the move. It wasn’t like he had memorized every Psychic type’s move set, after all. Still though, it was better to assume it could.

Being the slowpoke that it was, the Galarian pokemon didn’t really… dodge much. Then again, slowpoke were a sturdy line of pokemon. They might not move much, but they could take a hit and keep going much better than one would expect looking at them.

“Pursuit!” he called, narrowing his eyes. It wasn’t as strong a move as Twineedle, admittedly, but it was a Dark type move, and it’d make things more difficult on the slowpoke to use Psychic moves. Pierce wanted to deal with that as best he could, considering Narcissa’s Poison typing made her weak against Psychic.

Any inconvenience they could create against those moves would be a welcome thing.

That was a bit too hopeful, however. This was proven when he saw Slowpoke’s head start shining. ‘Zen Headbutt,’ Pierce recognized immediately, considering he’d been looking out for that move. Unfortunately, he was too late to call Narcissa off, considering how close the two pokemon were and that his beedrill was mid-move. ‘Let Pursuit mitigate the damage, please,’ he thought with a grimace.

If it did or not, he didn’t know even after both moves clashed against each other. Neither of the two pokemon showed much, although that said more about Narcissa than it said about slowpoke. The Psychic type wasn’t very expressive, after all… kind of fitting, considering its trainer.

Idly, Pierce was grateful that Sabrina couldn’t read his mind.

“Keep going, careful,” he commanded curtly. He didn’t want to waste seconds against a trainer that could order at the speed of thought. Sure enough, Slowpoke was already going for another move, Confusion this time. Narcissa’s body wobbled mid-air but she pushed through all the same, probably thanks to Pursuit.

With pursed lips, Pierce thought if there was anything they could do to improve things other than thoughtlessly trading moves against the Psychic. Alas, Pursuit was their best bet at the moment, considering it was interfering with the enemy attacks, no matter how little. Furthermore, Narcissa couldn’t use Pin Missile to keep her distance either. However… Well, that was an idea.

Actually, make that two ideas. Time for a little field testing, he decided.

“Move,” he called and Narcissa immediately moved away even if Pierce was sure she’d rather not. “Blast,” he added and his pokemon hesitated for a second before starting to shoot Poison Sting. Not an effective move, but it wasn’t weak against the Psychic type, at least not when it came to offensive, and that was what was important.

With some distance and constantly moving, Narcissa complicated things for the Confusion of the slowpoke. Not to say it was invalidated though, because it wasn’t. The beedrill would occasionally wobble midair or she’d be pushed in some direction as a hit landed.

They got solid hits in though, but the damage was still more or less equal.

Plan B it was.

“Obsidian Strike,” he called and Narcissa buzzed extra loud, which made him grin. Across from him, Sabrina tilted her head, which only made him wonder what she was thinking even more. Alas, that would remain a mystery.

At that moment, there was something more important to focus on anyway, which was Narcissa, using all the speed moves she had in her repertoire before dashing towards the Slowpoke and using Pursuit. Obsidian Strike, the Dark type equivalent of Tungsten Strike, was something that they’d worked on for Saffron in particular. It was a momentum bullet, using a little something called physics to boost the Dark type move’s damage, or try to anyway. The theory had already been proven to work too, considering they’d been able to turn a defensive move like Iron Defense into a damaging one with it.

‘Know him out, come on,’ he thought as his beedrill flew in a straight line despite slowpoke using Confusion on her. Pursing his lips, Pierce resigned himself to just waiting and planning what to do afterwards. If that move wasn’t enough, maybe he could have Narcissa latch onto slowpoke and use Bug Bite? Or put some distance back again and use Poison Sting again until slowpoke was out? The battle of attrition was something he wasn’t looking forward to but-

The move connected, pinning the slowpoke down against the ground with Narcissa’s stingers. That is, before his beedrill staggered off, trying to shake off the effects of Confusion. Was she confused? Pierce couldn’t tell, but-

Slowpoke’s head started shining.

“Move!” he called immediately. His expression fell and his face paled, watching Narcissa twitch and fly. She was slow though, and instead of getting away she just moved a bit to the side. “Narcissa, Move!” he repeated with more emphasis, but it was a lost cause. She was already being hit by the Zen Headbutt. “Narcissa!” he called, trying to get her up. Alas, it ended up being more to confirm that she was out than anything else.

“Beedrill is unable to continue,” the referee called and Pierce’s face twisted into a pained grimace. ‘Should have more ranged options. She was weak against Psychic, so the straightforward way just didn’t work. Maybe Twineedle would have worked better even if she took more damage?...’ he thought to himself, already coming up with ideas. “Challenger Pierce, please let out your second pokemon.”

Before he could so much as think about it, however, Sabrina re-caught her slowpoke at the same time he did Narcissa.

Pierce grinned to himself at what it meant, especially since the Leader had said nothing about switching pokemon. His beedrill hadn’t gone out without leaving a little something for slowpoke, it seemed. Re-catching a pokemon in between battles wasn’t unheard of, really. It was actually a little strategy used when a pokemon was affected by something so as to stall the effects during the pause in battling. After all, nobody wanted to have their pokemon taking extra damage while waiting for the opponent to release their pokemon.

This had been made part of the ruleset when people started taking advantage of the pause period, waiting as much as they could before releasing their pokemon.

That meant Slowpoke was poisoned. Didn’t help him decide on who was next much, but it was good to know. Narcissa would like hearing about it later, even if she wouldn’t be happy with the battle no matter what.

As for who to pick next… He didn’t know if Sabrina would keep the slowpoke or not. That made things a little troublesome, but he’d just have to deal with it. Besides, Slowpoke probably wouldn’t last long anyway, he was sure, but it was still worth considering that it might know something that could work against them.

Galarian Slowpoke evolved into Psychic-Poison, so it was fair to assume it could already have moves of that second typing. It was also fair to assume it would still have water type moves anyway. So, Orion was kind of out of the question.

Wordlessly, he reached for a pokeball and let out his next partner.

“Hey there,” he greeted, receiving a yip from Andromeda. “Narcissa’s out and she couldn’t take out her slowpoke,” he explained, making the Water type’s eyes widen. Yeah, he felt the same, but he needed to keep it together. The time for nerves was long gone. He needed to keep it together and win, because he didn’t want to tell Narcissa that not only had she been taken out without a win, but they’d also failed the challenge.

Was it reasonable to expect to win all challenges first try? No, but he could damn well try.

“Gym Leader Sabrina, you can switch pokemon now,” the referee said to which the woman shook her head and released her slowpoke once more. Immediately, Andromeda crouched, ready to pounce. Meanwhile, Pierce took a deep breath in. “Start!”

“Strike,” he said instantly and Andromeda dashed forward like a cheetah on the hunt. Slowpoke, for its part, used Confusion once more, trying to get her off course. Bite was already coating the vaporeon’s mouth with Dark energy though and that made her a more difficult target than usual, just like Pursuit had Narcissa. Not to say that Andromeda wasn’t pushed or hindered, but it certainly was better than just outright getting slapped down or away.

Once she got the bite in, she didn’t let go. That is, until a moment later, Slowpoke used Disable once again. He expected that though. The one hit should be enough.

“Blast!” he shouted and Andromeda went through with the order, using Shadow Ball almost point blank. Not before Slowpoke started going for another Zen Headbutt though, much to his frustration. Pierce was really getting tired of the Psychic’s ability to just tank the attacks they threw at it.

Fortunately, that was the end of it for the Galarian pokemon. The little shit did get the hit in before going, but Pierce was just glad progress was made. Andromeda wasn’t fragile and Psychic type did normal amounts of damage to her. It was all as good as it was going to get, he supposed.

The challenge was going both better than he’d expected and worse than he hoped.

Now the question was if they’d do well enough.

“Slowpoke is unable to continue,” the referee called and he sighed, relaxing a little. Not only were things getting stressful, but the fact that he had to constantly keep his mind focused on things from his old world didn’t help either. He imagined Sabrina as her anime self, HUD pop ups from the games as the battles went on and many other things, all of that had to be kept in mind so that his mind would remain unreachable.

He wasn’t sure how much that actually helped, since he imagined Sabrina wasn’t one to really cheat all that much. Otherwise her ratio of successful challenges would be a lot more skewed. Still, at that point, it was a matter of principle. He wanted to keep her away from his plans, if nothing else. It was his personal battle, sort of.

“Gym Leader Sabrina will release her next pokemon,” the referee called and the woman didn’t hesitate at all. She took out a pokeball without even touching it, making it levitate and then show them their next opponent.

Girafarig.

Pierce narrowed his eyes.

“Challenger Pierce, you can switch your pokemon now,” the referee told him and he thought it over for a moment. She’d picked that pokemon for a reason, he’d bet. For one, Girafarig was immune to Ghost type moves like Shadow Ball, so there went half of Andromeda’s chances of doing damage. If it knew Disable like Slowpoke did then…

“I’m switching,” he answered, making Andromeda turn towards him. Fortunately, there was no judgment there. “You did well, girl. I’m sure you’ll get a chance for more before this is over,” he told her and she nodded. Thank God she was so understanding. He could only imagine what Narcissa would be like if he told her that. “Only one option now,” he mumbled as he re-caught Andromeda.

Pulling out another of his pokeballs, he released his third and last pokemon of the challenge.

“Well, how are things?” Cygnus asked as he appeared, eyes firmly on Sabrina.

‘Narcissa is out and Andromeda took out her opponent with some damage taken,’ Pierce explained, because with his tactic of using the blockage Cygnus couldn’t make a full connection. It was only through practice that they had managed a partial one to talk through. ‘This is their second pokemon so-’

“The ideal is that I take this opponent out and damage the next one,” Cygnus finished for him.

‘Yeah,’ Pierce replied, squaring his shoulders at the same time as his kadabra, both of them readied themselves. ‘So, let’s get on with it.’

“Of course.”

With their conversation at the speed of thought over, both of them waited the seconds it took the referee to speak.

“Start!”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

And our boy is finally tackling Sabrina. I’m not one to be confident in battles, honestly, especially pokemon ones, but I’m doing my best, ok? Here’s hoping that you guys like it. I thought it was just early battles that were a pain because of how simple those were, but, evidently, it’s pokemon battles in general that are the problem.

This does not bode well for my mental well being in the future was this gets worse and worse.

Send help.

On a different note, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What footwear are you using, if any? I’ve got flip-flops myself.

See you.